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But the first thing to finish was the fence - and today the man who built that fence before he was elected, Minister of State with responsibility for Sports Herman Longsworth - pulled up the curtain on the synthetic track that athletes and fans have been waiting on forever, it seems. Jules Vasquez got a look:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
This is the world class, IAAF certified 400 meters synthetic running track at the Marion Jones Stadium. It cost 2 million dollars funded by the government of Venezuela. It was installed by a US firm named Traction and certified by a British Company

Hon. Herman Longsworth, Minister of State - Sports
"We choose to elevate and seep the track on piles simply because of the unstable ground that we have here and the weight of what we intended to put down."

"This track is here for several life times. The surfacing now is world class, in fact the guys who came here - the consulting firm that came to do the inspection for certification is a company named AECOM out of Britain - they told me that this surface is exactly the same surface as that which was used at the 2012 Olympics in London, so we have a world class surfacing on the track."

The surface should last 25 years - with proper care and Longsworth says a management protocol will have to be put into place before it is used.

But it will be opened for athletes to use before the rest of the facility which is about 50% complete:

Hon. Herman Longsworth, Minister of State - Sports
"We've achieve the 400 meters running track. We achieve the beach volleyball facility. We are about 75% of complete with the FIFA standard football field and we are in the process of constructing the actual grand stand facility which is the main structure that is going to be built here."

The grand-stand is a massive towering, structure; it will hold up to six thousand persons - and will go one deck higher than you see it now.

Work also has to be completed on the football field and the cycling track:

Hon. Herman Longsworth, Minister of State - Sports
"We have resurfaced the cycle track and you guys can have a look at that. We currently don't have the funds in the budget but I want to find the money to widen the cycle track so that we can create a jogging track and a cycle track. When we have cycling we can then use the full width of that. But until we can do that people will access to the cycle track on a daily basis they can use it but like I said it would be managed properly."

And with all that - it will be more than a year before this facility is ready to be opened.

Hon. Herman Longsworth, Minister of State - Sports
"We want to have the facility completely ready for public by the end of 2013. We are pretty much on track where that is concern as we speak."

2013 will make it more than 9 years since ground was broken - and President Chen - now jailed in Taiwan - scored this symbolic goal - we didn't know then that almost a decade later, Belizeans still wouldn't have had their chance to jump for joy.

A few notes, first - the British from which came to certify the track did find a few issues with the installation of a few sections of the track - and the contractor is required to fix those before they sign off on it.

But the runway for the long jump and triple jump was not certified; that will have to be redone completely - since the surface is uneven.

The entire project will cost 30 million dollars - with 2 million from the Venezuelans and 10 million from the Taiwanese. The Taiwanese money has long been promised but has still not come through. That means it is mostly government funded - which may explain the glacial pace with which things have so far proceeded.